Monday, May 30, 2016

Copper, warm, and silent on the wall,Akhtamar stares east and I writemy academic body, thinking of her desperate desire for the other that she’s taken as a bridge, and the powerof time travel. She looks different here at home, frail and insecure with slim hipsnot like by the black lake therewhere she towers a Soviet warrior womanover the forested shore and highway,hands together above her head, looming,ready to dive, fly in an arc over uswith our raisin buns at a red picnic table,splash into that wormhole to save what remnants are left and bring back what was lost and drownedin forgetfulness, remembrance, and the silencesof so many similar words over and over,point the way to intimate communion, but she still doesn’t, waitinglike she has all these hundreds of years obedient and frustrated.I understand that part.When I remember the activists’ chant,I rethink Akhtamar’s mythic patience, the waiting and watchfulness of a survivor for the crane of justice to hoist it all out of the water.I raise my hands together over my head, in my dining room, where I write, My toes grasp sandy rocks under the table. I sense her tension and put her body into my words.Copyright 2016, Melissa King

Melissa King is Faculty Chair of the Anthropology Department
at San Bernardino Valley College in San Bernardino, California. Her
anthropological research has concerned memory of genocide within Armenian
American youth activisms in the Los Angeles area. She received her doctorate
from University of California, Riverside, in 2013, and has both published and
presented her ideas through such organizations as the American Anthropological
Association. She has previously published poetry in Anthropology and Humanism.

* Vishapakagh Vahagn (Vahagn the Dragon Reaper) was a god of fire and war worshiped in pre-Christian era Armenia.

The following passages are taken from Antranig Dzarougian’s 1980 memoir, Ethereal Aleppo (Երազային Հալէպը). One of the foremost writers and editors in the Armenian Diaspora, Dzarougian lived and worked in the Armenian communities of Syria and Lebanon. Born in 1913 in the Ottoman town of Gurin (modern Gürün), Dzarougian was rescued during the massacres and brought to Aleppo, where he was raised in an Armenian orphanage. He is best known for a memoir about that period in his life, People without a Childhood (Մանկութիւն չունեցող մարդիկ), as well as for his long poem, Letter to Yerevan (Թուղթ առ Երեւան), and for the various pieces of prose and poetry published in Nayiri, the Aleppo-based, and later Beirut-based, literary journal that he founded and edited.-- Jennifer Manoukian, The Armenian Weekly

Reprinted from the Armenian WeeklyDERRY, N.H.—The Trustees of the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, N.H., and the Hyla Brook Poets announced that the winner of the 6th Annual Frost Farm Prize for metrical poetry is James Najarian of Auburndale, Mass., for his blank verse poem, “The Dark Ages.”

The prize was judged by David J. Rothman, Director of Western State Colorado University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing. Najarian receives $1,000, and publication in The Evansville Review. He will also be a featured reader at the Hyla Brook Reading Series at the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, on Fri., June 17, at 7 p.m. The reading kicks off the second annual Frost Farm Poetry Conference (June 17-19).

“‘The Dark Ages’ participates in what has become, over the last several decades, a recognizable sub-genre of the elegy, even if it is an elegy of death-in-life: the Alzheimer’s poem. This poem differs from all others on this theme I have ever read, however, in its successful use of an extended metaphor, in which the poet implicitly compares the mother’s loss of memory to the aftermath of the Roman departure from Britain. The poem’s six stanzas of blank verse, each nine lines long, alternate starkly between painfully clear-eyed description of the mother’s decline, and comparably evocative reimagining of the advent of ‘the dark ages,’ with the loss of wine and oil, the abandonment of towns, the vanishing of nails and so on,” said Rothman about Najarian’s poem, adding, “The result of such a strategy might have seemed predictable, but with an unsentimental eloquence and restraint that only make the unstated pain and loss that much more powerful, the poet never rhetorically asserts the connection between the alternating sections, but simply lets them stand and resonate with each other until the personal and the historical merge in ways that illuminate both. This is compelling, masterful work, not only technically adroit but also thematically fierce and focused, and emotionally profound: an intense yet also measured depiction of destruction and grief.”

Rothman went on, “With more than 600 entries, this year’s submissions to the Frost Farm Prize for Metrical Poetry presented a tremendous range of subjects, themes, tones, styles and techniques. After spending many hours with them, my overwhelming impression is that hundreds upon hundreds of poets continue to care about craft.”

Najarian grew up on a goat farm near Kempton, Pennsylvania. He teaches nineteenth-century poetry and prose at Boston College, where he directs the Ph.D. program in English and edits the scholarly journal Religion and the Arts. His poetry has been published in West Branch, Christianity and Literature, Tar River Poetry, Southern Poetry Review, The Literary Imagination, and other journals. He also published a scholarly monograph, Victorian Keats, with Palgrave Macmillan. His manuscript of poems, An Introduction to the Devout Life, has made finalist several times at volume contests, and is seeking a publisher.

The judge read all 646 anonymous entries and, in addition to selecting the winner, chose six poems for special recognition as Finalists and Honorable Mentions:

Finalists

“Julia Hungry” by Hannah Poston of Ann Arbor, Mich.

“The Chromatist” by Aaron Poochigian of New York, N.Y.

“Crush” by Brian Brodeur of Richmond, Ind.

Honorable Mentions

“Memento” by Catherine Chandler, Saint-Lazare, Quebec, Canada

“Black Impala” by Jon Volkmer of Telford, Pa.

“The Undersigned” by Aaron Poochigian of New York, N.Y.

About Frost Farm Poetry

Frost Farm Poetry’s mission is to support the writing and reading of poetry, especially metrical poetry. The Hyla Brook Poets started in 2008 as a monthly poetry workshop. In March 2009, the monthly Hyla Brook Reading Series launched with readings by emerging poets as well as luminaries such as Maxine Kumin, Sharon Olds and Richard Blanco. From there, the Frost Farm Poetry Prize for metrical poetry was introduced in 2010, with the Frost Farm Poetry Conference beginning in 2015.http://www.frostfarmpoetry.org/prize/

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Three Armenian writers -- Alec Ekmekji, Alina Gharabegian and Shahé Mankerian -- have been composing in a small writing group together for years by borrowing inspiration from one another read their creative work composed in approximately one-hundred-word lyrical pieces. Many of these are interlinked--one writer's piece leaning interestingly on another's style, borrowing from his images, appropriating his words and phrases, reworking another's symbol, while his own are likewise borrowed and wrought anew.

Monday, May 09, 2016

The Armenian Poetry Project is a proud supporter of NTM, an organization established in 2012 which has a growing following and many translations already from the Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Latin, Arabic, Persian, and Italian. Please join us in supporting this worthy project which celebrates reading and writing in translation every September.

Lola KoundakjianCurator and Producer of The Armenian Poetry ProjectArmenianPoetryProject[at]gmail[dot]com

Recently relocated to San Antonio and Michael Minassian is adjusting to life as a Texan. Some of his poems have appeared recently in such journals as The Broken Plate, The Comstock Review,Exit 7,Main Street Rag, and The Meadow. Amsterdam Press published a chapbook of his poems entitled The Arboriculturist in 2010. His blog is http://www.michaelminassian.com

Author's Note: The Jack in this poem is based on my uncle, Jack Karapetian (1925-1994), who wrote under the pen name of Hakob Karapents. Born in Tabriz, Iran, Jack was a prolific Armenian-American writer who wrote almost exclusively in Armenian. As a toddler, I followed Uncle Jack around the three-bedroom apartment in the Bronx and sat on his lap as he pounded away on his typewriter. In later years, he encouraged my writing and often read my poems and short stories, making comments and suggestions. After he retired and moved to Connecticut, we would go for long walks and discuss the craft of writing. I still consider him my mentor and muse and have written a series of poems around him.

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

No one dared to climb the skeletal tree in the dead end alley. Its trunk without branches surrendered to bullet holes.The drunk sniper spotted wayward children sprouting from bowing boughs. That's how Coconut Avo died.
He climbed the crying tree by Cinema Arax because he wanted to touch the halo on Miss Marilyn Monroe. Love forced
hefty hooligans to take miscalculated
risks in Beirut. We heard the crack first. Then the snap. Both the branch and Avo fell

instantly as if struck by lightning. The priest warned us, "The sniper shoots at drooping limbs and drifting children like lambs."This poem appeared in Barzakh, an online literary journal.

Tuesday, May 03, 2016

When Father read Maugham at the balcony, he didn't see the sheep blocking the traffic.
He was deaf to the screams of the taxi driver. When the shepherd boy banged his staffon the hood of the Mercedes and cursed, May God cut your testicles, Father flipped
a page as if shooing a fly. A bearded militiaman, high on hashish, fired his Kalashnikov into the air.
Father sipped coffee. The sheep didn't move.
A stray bullet pierced a cawing raven. A tainted
feather found an open page, smeared words like clubfoot and bondage. Maugham required
a bookmark on Father's lap. This poem appeared in Barzakh, an online literary journal.

Sunday, May 01, 2016

The 10th anniversary of the Armenian Poetry Project is a GRAND FIESTA celebration, just prior to the announcement of winners of the sixth annual Arthur Halvajian Memorial poetry writing competition. We are grateful to our competition's sponsor, the Armenian Students' Association and its board members, and, our poetry judges.To date, APP has received over 602,000 unique hits and 30,707audio downloads since its debut in May 2006. In addition to our readers, there are over 317 Feedburner, 110 Blogger, and 132 Twitter followers.Readership, averaging 42% from Armenia, is from over 100 countries where the lonely and the curious reach out to poetry TM.Heartfelt thanks:To you, our Readers -- you make it all possible. Your constant encouragement motivates the authors, the translators and the teachers.To Peter Balakian, James Baloian, Sarkis Vahaken, Jean Assadour, Alan Whitehorn, Arpine Konyalian Grenier, Diana Der-Hovanessian, Aram Ketenjian, Panos Jeranian and William Michaelian (HG!) who sent their books and notes.To Aram Saroyan, Gregory Djanikian,Michael Casey, Sotère Torregian, Lorne Shirinian, Raffi Setian, Lory Bedikian of Poetry Matters, Nancy Kricorian, Esther Heboyan, Keith Garebian, Nora Nadjarian, Nancy Agabian of GARTAL, Jim Erkiletian, Michael Akillian, Mark Gavoor, Garo Armenian and other contemporary authors for their permission to post their poems.To Dr. Levon Avdoyan, at Library of Congress, for his assistance in researching books,To Prof. Theo M Van Lint for his scholarship and help in acquiring texts,To Nvair Kadian Beylerian for the use of her grandfather Anoush Krikorian's library,To Zachary Jean Chartkoff for his contribution of books to the ever expanding APP library,To Artsvi Bakhchinyan and Vartan Matiossian for their scholarship and translations,To Prof. Dora Sakayan for her translations of Paruyr Sevak and her enthusiasm,To Prof. Valentina Calzonari for her translations published in the series Patrimoine littéraire J.-C. POLET (éd.),To L.A.'s Zephyr Poets --Tina Demirdjian, Armine Iknadossian, Shahé Mankerian and Alene Terzian); Karen Karslyan, and Ara Shirinyan, for their support and partication in readings,To Albert Kaprielian for his aid in getting documents on Canadian-Armenian poet Sha[u]nt Basmajian,To Sako Arian for his contribution of books,To Per Wik who introduced his grandfather Harout Kosdantyan and his work,To Gagik Batikian for his love and sharing of Istanbul's contemporary Armenian poets,To Elizabeth Grigorian for her assistance at the Glendale Public Library.To Catherine Fletcher and the editorial staff at Rattapallax for devoting a special feature on post-Genocide Armenian Poetry. To the judges of the 1st-6th Arthur Halvajian Memorial poetry writing competition: Garen Kazanc, Christopher Janigian; Lisa Whitten, Silva Ajamian, Dr. Rachel Goshgarian, Father Mesrob Lakissian and Alice Movsesian.To Louise Kiffer of France and Sylvie M. Miller of U.K. for their translations of poems into French, and Tatul Sonentz-Papazian for this translations into Armenian, French and English.To the budding poets who send me emails and who participated in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd anniversary Poetry Blasts, and APP's poetry writing competition.To the volunteer readers who contributed their voices to 19th - 21st century authors.To the staff at Horizon Weekly's Literary Supplement (Montréal); the Aztag Daily's Literary and Arts Supplement (Beirut); the New York Public Library (Humanities Research); the Glendale Public Library; the Zohrab Center (New York); the Armenian Prelacy (New York); the AGBU's Bibliothèque Nubar (Paris); and, the Librairie Samuélian (Paris).Lola KoundakjianCurator and Producer of The Armenian Poetry ProjectArmenianPoetryProject[at]gmail[dot]com